Glazed And Confused

Dan Mallory is grappling with the success of his debut thriller, The Woman in the Window, 2018’s biggest work of adult fiction. But his author alter ego AJ Finn is enjoying the ride, one that brings him to WORD Christchurch this month.

- Michele Hewitson

Poor Dan Mallory. Here he is, the former book editor, in his New York apartment, talking to strangers on the telephone from such far-flung places as New Zealand.

He lives alone except for a pet plant. He wouldn’t mind a boyfriend and he longs for a French bulldog. For now it is just him and the plant. I ask how he is and he says: “I’m fine. I’m just reading about the latest Trump shitstorm so I’m feeling thoroughly depressed, but that’s how I feel most days.”

That’s Dan Mallory. A J Finn, his pen name (the Finn bit is the name of a French bulldog owned by a family member; they are all dog crazy), is doing a bit better than fine. His debut thriller, The Woman in the Window, is this year’s number one adult fiction seller in the world. He has a US$2 million two-book deal. It is being made into a film starring Amy Adams as Finn’s agoraphobic, dipso, sufferer of post-traumatic stress syndrome and watcher-of-other-people’s-lives-through windows protagonist, Dr Anna Fox.

He says: “It’s strange, Michele, my book was acquired in 2016, and that of course was at the end of a year that found most people shaking their fist at Trump and Brexit, as I was. But this horrible little voice in the back of my head kept murmuring: ‘well, you’re having a pretty good year’. And that’s how I feel about 2018. The world is burning but I’m secure in my little corner. But I would say, all things considered, I would trade all of this to have that man out of office, to have those kids out of their prisons and I know we’re not supposed to be talking about politics but …”